Not to hijack this thread but I'm curious why you don't recommend the Briess munich? Is it too bland? Not malty enough?

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The "normal" Briess Munich is made with 6 row malt and to me has a weirdly grainy flavor. The Bonlander is 2 row, but I haven't tried it so I have no personal opinion. Between Great Western and Best Munichs, I don't have a reason to look any further.

My Last Mild started 1.042, and ended at 1.020. Despite the rather high FG, I haven't found it to be very sweet at all. It has a really great body though, and drinks a lot like a porter. I think if I wanted to make something lighter for the summer, I would mash a bitter around 159, and use a bit less crystal. IIRC, this beer had 1/2lb of crystal (60).

I was thinking 10% Munich is appropriate. Too much in a light beer will darken the color. Maybe you could get away with 15-20%, I have not run the numbers through software. Depends on how dark you want. If color doesn't really matter, then yeah, use 20-30% with great effect.

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Dave

The world will become a much more pleasant place to live when each and every one of us realizes that we are all idiots.

I was thinking 10% Munich is appropriate. Too much in a light beer will darken the color. Maybe you could get away with 15-20%, I have not run the numbers through software. Depends on how dark you want. If color doesn't really matter, then yeah, use 20-30% with great effect.

Depends on what Munich. The color of some of the Light or "Munich I" grains are as low as 6L. 20% of that stuff in a beer made with 2-row or Pale Ale malt is not going to have it's colored affected to the point of detriment.

Also, 10-15% will give you a slight graininess that is pleasant but not immediately identifiable as Munich malt. I think it's really nice in a beer like this.

My Last Mild started 1.042, and ended at 1.020. Despite the rather high FG, I haven't found it to be very sweet at all. It has a really great body though, and drinks a lot like a porter. I think if I wanted to make something lighter for the summer, I would mash a bitter around 159, and use a bit less crystal. IIRC, this beer had 1/2lb of crystal (60).

My porter starts and finishes in the same ballpark as your Mild. I use a bit more crystal malt, but the roasted malts balance that out nicely. Not syrupy at all even at that low of an attenuation.

I ended up using 15% Munich because the brew shop was out of regular 2 row and I was afraid the alternative would make it too malty. I went with 75% pale ale malt and 15% Munich. I plan to brew this again soon where I will go with my original plan of 20%.

Overall the beer was quite tasty. I am considering making this one of my regulars though I am still not sure what it would classify as. I will just call it an "ale" I suppose. I had really poor efficiency on this batch and higher than anticipated attenuation. It had a bit of a watery mouthfeel that seemed to get better with time. The hops came through a bit more than I was expecting but I think that had to do with it being a lighter beer.

Good experience with S04 other than some unexpected floaties for about the first half of the keg. I will continue to use this yeast.